Iowa Hawkeye Football: Stanzi Film Review: Penn St

Another solid game for Stanzi in which Iowa was in full on burn up the clock mode by the 3rd quarter. Iowa only put the ball in the air 7 times in the second half against 15 in the first half. The only major mistake he made in this one was firing up the ball on a post route into a deep center-field safety that was picked off. It looked like he had made up his mind to throw that ball before the ball was even snapped and the play just wasn't there. Other than that a few inaccurate throws and one other risky decision were all that hurt Stanzi in this one. He showed great touch on the deep ball in this one again, especially when attacking outside the hashes up the field. He was patient in the pocket in this one through out the day and did a nice job reading the coverage schemes throughout this game. He continues to make good use of his check downs and also his scrambling ability is a consistent weapon.

After watching Reisner beat coverage time after time early in this game I was surprised that Iowa didn't come back to him more often later in this game. They did something similar against Ball St last week coming out and going to Reisner early and often and then basically not looking his the rest of the game. Reisner has consistently shown the ability to beat man coverage against a LB or a S so far this year and should be able to continue that trend into the Big 10 schedule.

Through 5 games Ricky Stanzi's decision making, mechanics, and overall level of play are vastly improved from last season. Coming into the season I considered him a late round draft pick or a FA candidate. Through 5 games Stanzi has done a lot to increase his stock with NFL scouts including showing maturity in his decision making and also showing improved velocity and velocity control. He's got the leadership intangibles that are often cited as criteria for NFL QB's also. At this point I'd say he's risen in my book to around a 4th or 5th round pick with room to move up even higher yet. He's got a lot of upside and his best football may yet be ahead of him.

Stanzi+1 Nice throw to the vacated zone as PSU blitzed here. Good quick throw. D1 Play 2+1 Nice completion on the wide side out to McNutt here as he fires a good solid throw to a wide open McNutt. D1 Play 3+1 Great audible here as he recognizes 1 on 1 with McNutt on the wide side of the field with a single high safety. Perfect ball on the fade route to McNutt. D1 Play 6-1 False start D1 Play 8-1 Very poor decision here as he tries to fire a deep post route off the play action with a center-field safety. This kind of thing may work against Ball St but against PSU it’s a different story. If he was going to throw this ball anywhere it should have been McNutt on the underneath crossing route. D2 Play 3+1 Nice job escaping the pocket here and just going out and getting an easy first down here as PSU was in man coverage down the field. D3 Play 2+1 Stanzi Excellent patience by Stanzi here as he lets this play develop. DJK clears his defender and is all by himself in the back of the end-zone because the safety bit up on McNutt running the shallow in route. D3 Play 7-1 Throws a very dangerous pass over the middle here as Robinson was running a short curl out of the backfield. The LB was sitting on this route all the way here and put a shot into Robinson. D7 Play 5+1 Great patience here as he lets the play develop and he checks it down to Morse in the center of the field. D9 Play 3+1 Nice recognition here as he spots the Cover 0 and goes up top to DJK here. Perfectly thrown deep ball D9 Play 4-1 Poor throw here as he rushes the throw to a wide open DJK on the roll out. He needed to take his time and deliver an accurate pass. D9 Play 5